Is Retirement on Hold – Yet Again?

For
literally years now perennial leading Alberta trainer, Dale “The Colonel” Saunders has threatened this will be “his
last year of training”.Ordinarily
it would be reasonable to believe that it may be time to hang it up considering
his career has spanned over forty-seven (47) years since starting a public
Alberta stable in 1969.Horses under
his care have amassed earnings of almost $16 million and most of the money has
been won here at home.If the last three
race days at Northlands are an indication, he would certainly be leaving at the
top of his game since he is winning at clip as good as or better than other
times in his career.However, the
sixty-four thousand dollar question is - if he retires now what exactly would
he do to occupy his time?Can’t see him lying
on the couch at the Bowden homestead fading into the sunset.If memory serves, this retirement talk
started many moons ago but the rhetoric certainly heated up around the same
time as Stampede Park left the racing business.He contends to this day that he was treated very well there by the staff
and management – maybe even like royalty.

So
for a guy that maintains that he has no “live stock” to speak of, consider that
in the last three (3) race days he started 10 horses resulting in 6 wins; 2
seconds; and one third. Notwithstanding that that in a couple of races he had
two starters who logically could do no better than one, two unless they dead
heated for the win. Only one starter ran
out of the money.Not to be lost in the
detail was the fact he took down the money in the $50,000 3 & 4 year old
Sales Stakes.How can it possibly get
any better than that?Also keep in mind
that he excels annually at the upcoming Alberta Fall Classic Day in September,
where his charges generally win 2 or 3 of these stakes and are usually
homebreds.Ready to retire – we would
think not for the foreseeable future!

Around The Horn

Once
again it should be abundantly clear that Jockey Rico Walcott is one of the, if not the premier rider in Western
Canada.He trekked over the mountains on
Canada Day and won with the 3 yo. filly Snuggles
in The Supernatural Stakes.The win came
at the expense of local owner Don Danard who could do no better than second with C U at Eau Claire.As a consolation, Rico can back to win on Danard’s
Western Heritage in the night
cap.We are reminded of an interview a
couple of years back where the ultimate compliment was paid to Rico by Trainer David Forster who said that the last
Jockey he gave a leg up to with as much talent as Rico was Laffit Pincay.

Speaking
of Hastings, Strate Remark first
time starter for Riversedge Racing Stable won a 3 ½ furlong Maiden Allowance
dash race for two year olds.Not only
did he win by a head but had to survive a jockey claim of foul which was
disallowed.

We
noted somewhat of an anomaly with the distribution of the purses monies at
Hastings.The winner share is currently 55% rather than the 60% in Alberta and nearly all other
North American jurisdictions.Furthermore, for whatever reason no BC bred bonus was paid to the
winning owner.Thus the winner share of
the $18,000 purse was $9,900 and
there is no question that the competition is somewhat tougher at the coast than
locally.A 3 ½ furlong Maiden Allowance
race at Northlands has a purse of $14,000 with $8,400 going to the winner.If the winner is an Alberta bred, an extra 37% ($3,108) is added to the
winner’s share in real time making the total earnings $11,508. As the advertising goes – “it pays to own an Alberta
bred”.

Wagering
continues to disappoint with short fields playing a major factor in the daily
results. For the first twenty-five (25) days of the meet, wagering on the live
product totaled $6,491,178 compared
to $6,784,620 for the same period last year which represents a $293,442 (4.3%) decrease.The amount of the decrease is not
alarming however, the goal was to build on the positive start to the meet which
has not materialized to date.

Once
again the High 5 exotic wager was
not hit by a single ticket over the last three days meaning that going into
Wednesday’s action the carryover in the Pool now totals $93,010.We can’t quite
understand why there is not more play on this wager since a significant chunk
of change awaits some lucky customer.Opportunity awaits in a nine horse field carded in the 7th race on Wednesday July 6.

Copyright 2011 The Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association of Alberta